Christchurch

One of my absolute favourite things to do while traveling is to get lost in the city I find myself. For the holidays, it’s Christchurch, New Zealand and I couldn’t be more pleased. Known formerly as the Garden City (now Earthquake City) it’s home to one of the most elaborate, beautiful and free gardens I’ve ever been to.

Winding through the city stretch in Hagley Park you will find yourself enamoured with rose gardens, NZ wildflowers and trees, a winding river filled with ducks, a water garden, an indoor jungle greenhouse and so much more. Grab a coffee at Duck Duck cafe to complete your tour and plan to spend a few hours. You won’t be disappointed.

One of my, surprising, favourites of my adventure was this sculpture set into one of the many small lakes throughout the gardens. It’s work talks about the ascension of man and how as we grow we become more humble and need less. As we become closer to Source the point, literally, becomes clearer. While the statue is expensive to keep (approx $700/mth just for cleaning) and has impaled a couple of suicidal seagulls leading to them considering a rubber stopper at the top, it’s still magnificent and beautiful. A highlight I was surprised by.

I wandered the gardens for little over two hours and couldn’t help but be marvelled everywhere I turned. It was well worth the adventurous walk on such a bright sunny Sunday before Christmas and a memory I will truly cherish here.

I travelled over 14,000km’s to see flowers. Not any flowers. New Zealand lupin flowers. In all of their glory and my, oh my, are they magnificent. Flourishing between November – February in the southern island of New Zealand, these blooms cover every last square inch of the Lake Tekapo region bathing it in the most brilliant shades of purple, pink, rapberry and even coral. They are jawdroppingly beautiful and intoxicatingly scented.

On a daytrip from Christchurch, I was able to see the blooms in just under 3 hours. No massive lineups, no person charging for the privilege. This is Mother Nature in all of her glory. I was in pure awe.

Seeing these blooms has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember and after doing it, I just knew I had to commemorate the experience… with art. Yes, that brilliant piece of body art is my latest homage to my travels – lupins, New Zealand fern and greens and wild orange poppies. Wildflowers of my time in a country that changed my life.

Have you (or would you) ever get a tattoo to commemorate a bucket list travel adventure? Share your comments below!